In an interview with GQ Magazine, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings star Simu Liu talks about his recent Twitter critique of a Moon Knight scene.

Alright Arthur Harrow needs to fire his Mandarin teacher

Ethan Hawke is supposed to be speaking Mandarin to one of his followers but it is apparently gibberish.

Marvel mispronunciation.

Does that sound familiar?

We picked up what to our ear sounded like a mispronunciaton in the Ms. Marvel trailer.

Not just of some foreign language dialog uttered to a minion, but of the main character's name - Kamala - which is also a word.

While words like Kamala are frequently mispronounced by English speakers, this trailer upped the ante by first showing us another character pronounce her name correctly.

Our initial reaction was pleasant surprise at this degree of authenticity, swiftly replaced by shock when the main character "corrects" her with a mispronunciation.

An English equivalent would be someone pronouncing the name "Chastity" correctly and then Chastity correcting her that it's actually pronounced "Charz tightie."

You'd go cross-eyed if you heard that in a TV show.

We discovered that the pronunciation issue had been publicly brought to the attention of the comic book writer G. Willow Wilson in August 2020 on Twitter after US Senator Kamala Harris released a video on the correct pronunciation of her name.

Wilson offered separate mispronunciations of both her own character's and the senator's name and a questionable explanation for the difference.

Filming of the Ms. Marvel series didn't begin until November 2020.

There was ample opportunity to investigate and correct this error before it became consequential.

GQ's Iana Murray asks:

Still I wonder if Shang-Chi was a one off: a shiny display of allyship obscuring the lack of fundamental progress in pop culture. Was it a performative act of diversity if Marvel can’t portray Asian culture respectfully in the long run? Is it so hard to hire an accurate translator?

Hire an accurate translator versus a quick scene which rewrites the rules of pronunciation for a language.

Tough call.

Ms. Marvel premieres on Disney+ on June 16.

[ Main Image: Ms. Marvel. Credit: Marvel via IMDb.com. ]

References

CBS Philly (August 12, 2020). Here's How To Properly Pronounce Kamala Harris. YouTube.

Liu, Simu [@SimuLiu] (April 10, 2022). Alright Arthur Harrow needs to fire his Mandarin teacher. Twitter.

Marvel Entertainment (March 16, 2022). Marvel Studios’ Ms. Marvel | Official Trailer | Disney+. YouTube.

Murray, Iana (May 16, 2022). Simu Liu is dancing his way from Shang-Chi to Barbie. GQ Magazine.

UrduPoint.com. Kamala Name Meaning in Urdu (Girl Name). (viewed May 19, 2022)

Wikipedia. Kamal (name). (viewed May 19, 2022)

Wikipedia. Kamala Khan. (viewed May 19, 2022)

Wikipedia. Ms. Marvel (TV series). (viewed May 19, 2022)

Wilson, G. Willow [@GWillowWilson] (August 12, 2020). Since many people have asked. Twitter.